Kirsi Madi appointed as Deputy Executive Director of UN Women

UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Kirsi Madi as Assistant Secretary-General, responsible for leading the Resource Management, Sustainability and Partnerships of UN Women.

UN Secretary-General António Guterres appointed Kirsi Madi from Finland as Assistant Secretary-General, to serve as the Deputy Executive Director for Resource Management, Sustainability and Partnerships at the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women). Madi will transfer to UN Women from the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), where she served as Director and Chief of Staff for nearly four years.

“Promoting the position and rights of women and girls is one of the key objectives of Finland’s foreign and development policy, and UN Women is one of Finland’s most important partners in achieving these objectives. It is great news that we have succeeded in our goal to get Finns appointed to senior UN positions,” says Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Ville Tavio.

UN Women seeks to end gender inequality and eliminate discrimination as well as to strengthen the status, opportunities and rights of women and girls across the world. It is also responsible for coordinating gender equality efforts within the UN system.

Kirsi Madi’s goal is to help improve UN Women and make it even more efficient and productive. “It is essential to enhance the situation of women and girls worldwide so that societies can become more equal while respecting  and upholding the rights of everyone,” Madi says.

Kirsi Madi has over 30 years of experience in working in UN agencies, both at the headquarters and country level.  Before her current position, she has served as Director of the United Nations Office for Disaster Risk Reduction (UNDRR) and as UNICEF Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, among other positions. Before starting her career in the UN, Kirsi Madi worked with development cooperation matters at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs.